The combined output of the world manufacturing and service sectors has now risen for 16 successive months. Manufacturing continued to lead the upturn, with January seeing the pace of expansion in manufacturing production outpace that for services business activity for the fourth straight month.
Disparities between developed and emerging markets remained evident in January. The UK registered the highest PMI All-Industry Output Index reading of all of the nations covered by the survey, despite seeing its rate of expansion slip to a seven-month low. Growth rates were also marked in the US, Japan and Ireland.
A resurgent German economy combined with solid expansion in Spain and signs of recovery in Italy took the eurozone average to a 31-month high, offsetting the continued weakness in France. In contrast, Brazil, Russia and India all saw output contract marginally at the start of 2014.
The level of incoming new business also expanded for a sixteenth month running in January. Despite easing to its weakest since last October, the rate of new order growth remained above the average for the current sequence of increase. Improved demand encouraged further job creation, with employment rising for a forty-seventh consecutive month. Job creation was signalled in the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, Spain, Brazil, India and Ireland.
Input prices increased again at the start of 2014, taking the length of the current sequence of rising costs to four-and-a-half years. Purchase price inflation eased at manufacturers, but accelerated at service providers.
Companies were able to pass part of the increase in costs on to clients in the form of higher selling prices. Output charges rose for the seventh straight month, with increases signaled by both manufacturers and service providers.